Join Mercury News tech columnist Troy Wolverton starting at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday for all the action as Apple holds a media event in San Francisco, where it is expected to unveil an iPhone update, a larger iPad and an improved Apple TV.

WASHINGTON >> Only a handful of railroads are close to meeting a deadline this year to install safety technology that can prevent many crashes, including derailments due to excessive speed like the deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May, according to a government report released Friday.

The South by Southwest (SXSW) music, film and tech festival begins Friday in Austin, Texas, and the likes of Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Eric Snowden*, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Janie Hermann are getting set to make their appearance at the mega-convention.

My son turns 16 this week. It’s one of those milestone birthdays for him – and a reminder for me that he’s a young man with an eye to the future. That future holds many hopes and dreams – including talk of where to go to college.

Think long and hard about your relationship with your computer mouse or keypad. It’s so needy, isn’t it? It’s always demanding that you move your fingers from their ready-made position on the keyboard for the simplest of tasks: a click here, a scroll there.

Touchscreen gloves are an essential accessory for smartphone addicts battling the winter chill, but the options for consumers are fairly limited. Purchasing a pair of attractive, touchscreen-compatible mittens usually means paying a pretty penny or sacrificing aesthetics for something a little easier on the wallet

You may think that the mark of a mature relationship is the moment when a couple moves in together, adopts a cat or spends the holidays with each other’s families. But what about sharing an email account?

Who knew pigs had a love of technology? Getting ready for skydiving, an unidentified person lost their GoPro camera. But the camera stayed on and captured the whole fall from the plane to a pig pen, where a muddy pig investigated the camera, turning it off.

Recently, while chatting with my sister about posting photos of our kids on sites like Facebook and Instagram, she told me that she’d heard that other people can sometimes divine the location where the photo was taken.

Last week my husband stumbled on a Twitter account that shared “compliments” about local high school students. While many of the Tweets were harmless – “The juniors have the hottest guys” or “Kelly is the sweetest girl I know” – frequently, they veered into more explicit territory, commenting on students’ sexual prowess and worse.

In a world teeming with cable cutters and streaming media, critics have predicted the demise of live TV for some time. But the real fans know that's not so — new digital tools are actually making the experience of favorite shows even better.

NEW YORK — The winter doldrums strike in January and February, but there is one silver lining: It’s a great time to buy electronics. As stores clear out older merchandise and new models get introduced, good deals abound.

My father was recently the victim of a phishing scam. Like millions before him, he was convinced to pass along some sensitive information after receiving what appeared to be a legitimate email from his banking institution.

NEW YORK — The death of Google Reader, may it rest in peace, was difficult for everyone. For those obsessed with Google’s RSS offering, the alternatives seemed annoying. Too welcoming, too enthusiastic, too slick.

One of the more popular gifts for the holidays was an iOS or Android device. They’re either smartphones or a tablet, and if you got one, you probably have spent the month getting used to the gadget. Now that the adjustment period is over, let’s get down to what you’ll mostly being using it for — games.

During Christmas vacation, I found myself sitting next to my 13-year-old daughter during dinner with my parents, brother and sisters. All together, there were about 10 of us. Part way through dinner, she leaned over, whispered into my ear and said she wanted to show me her “anti-rape” app.

PASADENA, Calif.— Fox Sports has a few weather-related tricks up its sleeve for next month’s Super Bowl telecast, and the network plans to test them out before the Feb. 2 game that will be the first played in a cold-weather climate.

A study has revealed that people who are successful in their careers are more likely to be engaging in compulsive internet use, and are at increasing risk of anxiety, depression and isolation as they obsessively log in in out-of-office hours.

The holidays are over and despite the fact that half a toy store threw up in my house, the kids are both desperate for something to do (and I’m desperate for them to do something other than removing all the books from the shelf, dumping the dress-up clothes on the floor and leaving miscellaneous piles of small, plastic things.